Report: Le Tour Stage 2

I sure wish I was there... the Corsica countryside looks stunning and the event is as impressive as ever.

Since I'm not I will have to be content to follow it as best I can via all of the online and social media outlets I have access to. New to my blog is the twitter feed I've set up (on the right). That's simply because I'm using twitter a little more these days. And I expect to be writing daily reports as the Tour progresses, links will be provided here every now and then but you can find them by following pedalmag.com (@pedalmagazine on twitter).

Today's installments is

Tour de France Stage 2 Report, Results, Photos -

Bakelants Takes His First Victory As A Pro

Bakelents wins his first pro race in style. Cor Vos photo via PedalMag.com

What a way to start the 100th Tour de France!

I watched in disbelief, as did millions of others I'm sure.

Then I wrote a short piece for PedalMag.com about when Murphy's Law rules at le Tour. You can read it here... Chaos in Corsica

And then I spent a little timing seeing what the aftermath was. The one thing that really caught my eye was the new Twitter account for the Orica Greenedge Bus. It starts with this tweet:

"Be proud," they say. "Stand tall," they say. Look where it gets me...; Orica-GreenEdge Bus (@OricaGreenEdgeB)

It's worth having a look through the full feed. The incident definitely needs a to have a sense of humour brought to the table.

I hope the racers are all ok to start tomorrow. I hope tomorrow is a better day all around. And I hope the organizers are ashamed of themselves for causing this chaos.

Whatever you do though, don't blame the bus (or the driver)!

P.S. It looks like Tony Martin (OPS) may be a casualty.

Photo: Cor Vos, via PedalMag.com

Albion Hills and the 24 Hour Summer Solstice, 2013 Edition

I spent some time over the past couple of evenings organizing material and then I wrote up a piece for publication this morning... it was a fun event and one I really would have enjoyed being at. And one I look forward to getting to next time around when I'm not in this contraption.

A big thank you to Julie Rossall for some photos, and to Sarah Moore from Specialized Canada for the details. I had a good sense of how the weekend went because Andrea was there (with Babe on a ladies-only weekend) but as I couldn't be there I was counting on good info from reliable folks to be able to tell the story. It feels like it was a great weekend and I think I captured a bit of the essence!

You can find the full piece via FB and Twitter, here's the direct link: http://pedalmag.com/?p=195551&c

The GoldRusch Specialzed team, photo by Julie Rossall

I hope to have an opportunity to meet Rebecca and thank her for the encouragement she sent my way (via Andrea). One amazing lady!

Well... two amazing ladies.

2008, meet 2013

Speaking of countdowns (of course I'm writing not speaking but hey, it's my blog so I can say that), I've been watching, tracking and waiting for this to arrive too.It's been a nice distraction from thinking about the halo.

My new Macbook Pro, with the old one underneath

My original Macbook started giving me problems last year and failed on me earlier this year so I had to replace it. I intend to see if the old one can be repaired but I know I need one I can rely on for my travels so I got a replacement.

It's a 15" MB Pro with retina display and fully loaded. A big improvement over the 5 year old version while still retaining some of the best features. And as I usually do, it's a clean rebuild rather than transferring all the old stuff so I have some work ahead of me over the weekend. Something to help me pass the time :)

Here was the countdown to today on this front, one slight detour due to weather.

Concord, ON, Canada

06/27/20        13

13:17

Delivered

Concord, ON, Canada     06/27/2013     8:37     Out for Delivery
Concord, ON, Canada     06/26/2013     16:39     Destination Scan
    06/26/2013     8:28     Arrival Scan 
Mount Hope, ON, Canada     06/26/2013     7:05     Departure Scan
    06/26/2013     5:22     Import Scan
    06/26/2013     3:21     Arrival Scan
Buffalo, NY, United States     06/26/2013     1:07     Departure Scan
    06/26/2013     0:34     Arrival Scan
Louisville, KY, United States     06/25/2013     15:58     Departure Scan
    06/25/2013     15:51     Departure Scan
    06/25/2013     0:49     Arrival Scan
Anchorage, AK, United States     06/24/2013     14:05     Departure Scan
    06/24/2013     11:22     Arrival Scan
Narita, Japan     06/24/2013     21:29     Departure Scan
Narita, Japan     06/23/2013     22:46     Arrival Scan
Shanghai, China     06/23/2013     20:35     Network disruption due to prior weather conditions, check ups.com for further updates.
    06/23/2013     19:03     Departure Scan
Shanghai, China     06/21/2013     22:02     Export Scan
    06/21/2013     16:23     Arrival Scan
    06/21/2013     15:23     Departure Scan
    06/21/2013     12:43     Origin Scan
China     06/21/2013     0:37     Order Processed: Ready for UPS

I Can Count the Days on My Fingers

When I wrote that title I was only thinking of the fact that I'm now into single digits in my countdown to getting out of this halo. Then it struck me:
I can use my hands to count, just like a child. And I'm thankful.

A lot of friends have expressed how happy they are that I'm ok, how serious an injury it is and how lucky I am. I know that last thought very well. Spend a few months stuck living inside one of these, living inside period, and you have a lot of time to think a lot of thoughts. I've kept them positive and I intend to keep on doing that.

Positive thoughts only please, there's more than enough negativity in the world and I prefer to see smiles. There's another double thought for you too... as I've relaxed some and as my muscle tone has diminished, the pin sites develop a kind of sag. The nurse refers to them as smiles so I now have a 3-way smile! Even if I frown the smiles win.

Well, ok... to be fair not all the thoughts are positive. My sense of humour has found a few dark spots to explore and try to brighten them, not always with success. Still, the smiles win!

It is summer now, I love summer. A lot. Just never would have picked it as a time to wear a [synthetic] sheepskin vest. The weather has turned really hot here in Toronto and the house doesn't have central air so I'm stuck in my little office (with a window air conditioner) until I get sprung free. Sleeping with just a fan is a little challenging.

Single digits now... 8 more sleeps, 9 days.

Andrea had my "cape" out on the line yesterday drying from my last shower and I noticed it start to rain. I went out to get it off line and loved the feeling of the rain on my skin (yes, there it is again. I'm thankful). So I wrapped it around me, stayed on the back deck, and enjoyed the feeling of it all.

And yes, I have still have hair. That will be gone soon too!

In the rain, no singing though

So there you have have it. Getting down to a series of "lasts" that will I'm sure lead to a series of new firsts.

The first of the lasts is one my daughter Kayla wrote on my calendar when she was here on Sunday:

Time to lose the Sputnik look

Two weeks. Yes, I'm counting

All day the thought of not being inside this set of bars has been on my mind. By this time two weeks from today I'll know how things have gone and for better or worse I should be free of my halo. I hope for (and expect) better, not worse. The sensations I have from this side suggest it should be good. Still very weird though.

So 14 days and 13 sleeps, those are still the hardest part. I'm tired of being tired.

As I've been telling everyone close, only positive thoughts. It's all too easy to think about the bad shit, I prefer people around me focus on the good (whatever that is to you).

Getting close to doing the math to figure out how many hours left...

I've never been a hairy man

A tease from a friend and fellow cyclist about me having hair (the "I won't believe it if I don't see it" kind of comment) prompted me to take a picture, which led to a little thinking, which led to this post and gallery.

Let me start by saying that I've never been a hairy man.

Almost no hair on my chest, can't grow a full and bushy beard, had fine head hair and a receding hairline even in high school. And friends who've only known me for a couple of years are used to seeing a cleanly shaven scalp as I've keept it that way since January 2011. Before that I had longer hair on my head but shaved my legs (like any self respecting roadie).

I was 18 in this photo (wish I still had that bike)

As a kid I was a real baby face, it took until I was in my late 20s before I could grow a moustache. And when I did it was a handlebar 'stache.

I remember in my first year of high school: my machine shop teacher took out a micrometer to show the class how to use it and after measuring my hair predicted I would start going bald by the time I was 30. He was right.











That didn't stop me from growing my hair out into a ponytail. Even while being a good corporate employee it was important to not lose my sense of self. Anyone who's worked @ Eightbar knows that being labelled a wild duck was like a badge of honour. I wore that tag proudly.

2001

The ponytail got cut when I turned 50 (my choice). I quit smoking at that time as well, again my choice. That's a tale for another time.

2004, losing the ponytail at 50

Short hair, shaven legs

I struggled with what I felt were bad hair cuts for a bunch of years (one of the reasons I let it grow out in the first place was that fine hair is hard to cut and I didn't like bad haircuts) and decided I'd get my own trimmer and look after it myself. That worked for a few years.


Then one morning, I started using the electric trimmer and after the first pass I took off the #3 to trim around my beard. Let's just say the head looked very trimmed by the end of that day. Not planned but I liked the feel of it, thought it looked ok too and so I decided to keep it that way. One of my favourite photos in recent years is this one that Jenna took in New Zealand. I've used it in a number of places including the contributor page of Pedal Magazine.

Trimmed the way I like it

Well... this spring has me with a head of hair just as we get ready for summer to arrive. I'm looking forward to getting rid of it all when I can (that won't be until after the pin sites are healed) but meanwhile here's the proof for that skeptical and teasing friend. It's not as gray as I thought it might have become since I last saw it. Still as sparse up front though!

Call me unkempt...

I'm looking forward to shedding the hair almost as much as I am the halo vest. Oh... I still can't grow a full beard, what you see on my face is about 2 months growth. Those are still not far off from baby cheeks.

And for the record I'm as eager to get back on a bike as I am to get my smooth dome back (smooth with some new features). I miss riding a lot. Sure hope things are healing well, down to 2 weeks and 2 days until I know how it's really going.

I have a date and it's July 3

Today was my first official checkup with the neuro trauma team @ Sunnybrook. I knew it would just be to see how things are progressing so I didn't have big expectations on finding out what the timeline looks like. I left there feeling pleasantly surprised. And in some ways it's not really surprising. Once we got to the core team back in April when this journey started the communication and support has been exemplary.

My appointment was for 10am, I had to arrive earlier to get an x-ray done so Andrea got us there around 9:15 and we were settled in the waiting room shortly after. The wait wasn't long, probably less than 5 minutes to get in, get the x-ray done and be off to the neuro area. Which put us there around 9:30. Well!

They took us in @ the clinic within 10 minutes or so. They had already reviewed the x-ray (alignment good, bones healing well) and we were done there in a few minutes too. The halo nurse hadn't expect this any more than we had, she'd booked a 9:30 meeting assuming we'd be done some time after 10 (which was my expectation too). So we waited a while for her to arrive and she was apologetic and also her usual positive self.

A hardware checkup later, pins properly torqued and we were done. Since we were ahead of schedule we talked about next steps...

I have an appointment to come back on the 3rd of July at which time I'll get a CT scan. If that looks good to the team Tracy will take off most of the brace leaving only the pins and halo (that will be the first time my neck will get to support my head since early April).

We'll go to get 2 x-rays to see how my neck looks for flex and extension.

If those look good the pins and halo are gone, the final few minutes to get to "freedom".

I will still be using a neck brace for a while after that, something I had assumed all along. There will be some physio-therapy. And it will take a while for the pin openings to heal. I assume I'll have scars to remind me of all this. I won't describe that last part of the healing, it's just part of the process though so I'll get through it.

A few days later I'll get to have my first shower since early April.

Sometimes it's the little things.

How to wash your hair with a halo vest

This was a search query that made its way to my site and for whoever that was I'm sorry to say I don't have any info online. It gave me reason to pause and consider this, perhaps I've been working out something and sharing my experience could help. So let me fix that now for the next person.

The question matters to anyone who has to learn to live with a halo vest because:
1. you know you're going to be wearing it for a while
2. you can't take it off
3. it's a bad idea to get the lining wet
4. and hair needs to be washed

So...
I'm aware of a few different methods and have discussed it at some length with my "Halo nurse" Tracy (official title is Acute Spinal Cord Injury Nurse; Trauma, Emergency and Critical Care Program). One method used in New Zealand that Andrea brought up is a full shower; getting everything including the vest all wet, and then swapping out the wet lining with a dry one. Tracy was aware of this and all of her comments suggested that it's hard on the pins because you're yanking things around a lot more. Pin care is paramount with a halo vest and it's the primary source for complications. So no thanks I say.

Before I got this hardware I had been shaving my head for over 2 years. No hair washing, out of practice. I now have hair after almost two months and counting, it needs washing and has all along. If I were to offer advice about length of hair I'd recommend that you get the hospital to cut it all off before they install a halo. Once you have it on, cutting hair (even shaving) means you will get itchy hair inside the vest and it will make you very unhappy. I've shaven my face but not trimmed my hair. I don't plan on doing that until the halo comes off.

Unless you really really need to keep your hair you should seriously consider shedding it. It will grow back. If you want to keep it you probably want them to cut it around where the pins will be. Pin care is paramount.

Next up is the act of washing. It ain't pretty, it can even be a challenge to your self esteem and dignity. Any time you think that though remind yourself that it's much better than what could have been. If you can scratch your head (or wipe your butt, but not at the same time!) you know how precious it is to have working limbs. Get over the challenge, and get someone to help. It's much better with someone to help. If you really can't get help for this, you have a challenge I haven't tried to overcome.

I'm lucky that Andrea has been here all along and she's been great about it. Bathing is much easier because she washes my head. We try to make that happen twice a week, and washing inside the vest a couple more times during the week. Cleaning under the vest is another challenge, I'll save that for some other blog entry and stick with hair for today.

Start with a thin towel around your neck to block the water. Then put on the hair salon bib you got for this purpose (yes, it's worth buying one). Try to seal up the neck and shoulders as best you can.

Then make sure you have something to sit on in the tub. And run some warm water over it before sitting down, you'll feel better about it before the bathing has even started! Learn forward, enjoy the feeling of warm water running over your head. Don't worry if a little water leaks through, you'll have lots of opportunities to improve your technique.

Now for washing...
To clean under the vest you want to use a baby soap so if there's any left behind it won't be an irritant. Don't use that for your hair. Find something you like and do it right. On top of that, your scalp will likely be itchy so get your friend/love/spouse/helper a scrubber glove. It's just a slightly rough wash cloth in the shape of a hand, I'm sure there are lots of different kinds but you'll like the feeling. It helps get rid of the dead skin that naturally happens and you'll like having your ears scrubbed too.

Have a towel handy for the occasional leak, don't want to get the vest wet if you don't have to. Plus from time to time you'll want to get soapy water out of your eyes.

Then it's time to rinse. Lean forward, and enjoy the feeling of the water on your head for as long as your comfortable (and the water is staying out of your vest).

Dry off, enjoy the feeling, and thank the person who has invested their time and care to this moment of pleasure.

Oh, and it's a good time to clean your pins since they've soaked a little... pin care is ____ :)

A time of contrasts and contradictions

In some ways time is flying by, while dragging its heels in others. There's no denying that the past couple of months have been a challenge and I know the challenge will continue a while longer. So far so good though, I'm still up to the challenge.

May was busy on a professional level, quiet on a personal level. With the halo I'm not able to get out much and so I've been filling my time work two jobs out of my office. I did get out and walked over to the local shopping district so I could do some banking and stuff. By the time I was home I was exhausted and sweating up a storm. Wearing a [fake] sheepskin vest on a warm day isn't something I'd recommend.

The other outing I had was with Gord, another Westy owner, who offered to drive Babe to the local Canadian Tire to get the new Continental tires installed. I had ordered the tires when we still down in North Carolina so it was high time. It took a couple of hours, much longer than it should have. But the tires look good and feel great (even on a short drive like we had).

A few of my favourite things

Continental Vanco 2s

The rest of the time I've been enjoying the little things, like these.

Native Ontario trilliums

So that was the quiet side of things. One month and two outings.

Meanwhile I have been working with Pedal Magazine on the next buyers guide issue, writing the occasional piece for online publication and staying in touch with the world of cycling. The piece I wrote this morning is about final preparations for the Tour de France - the 100th edition starts on the 29th and the final preparation races start tomorrow (Dauphiné) and next weekend (Tour de Suisse).

Then there is what I've been doing between 9 to 5 weekdays... banking hours for my banking IT contract. That has been a lot of work, and quite enjoyable. There are a lot of talented people there and some very interesting projects.

Next up: my first visit to the neuro-trauma clinic to get x-rays and talk with the neuro team about how the healing process is going. That will be getting close to two month mark; not long enough for me to expect to hear the halo can come off though.

In addition to not being able to cover races, I've decided that I will have to miss BusFusion this year. I helped organize part of the event this year and was looking forward to being there. Instead I'll send along some of my camera gear so someone else can record the Saturday evening concert.

Ariana Gillis will be live @ BusFusion June 8th

Expecting about 200 buses this year

I'm doing ok though, just keeping a low profile. Making the most of what I can, not letting the rest get to me.